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Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Just because Europa (or her publicist) on Facebook asked nicely, I present the following mosaic, 19ESRHADAM01. This four-frame mosaic was taken on February 1, 1999 and was intended to cover a portion of Rhadamanthys Linea, a double-ridge on Europa's northern anti-Jupiter hemisphere. The view at right is just southwest of the prominent intersections of Udeaeus, Minos, and Cadmus Lineae. Clicking on the image at right will take you to a smaller version of the image, or you can download the full-resolution version by clicking here [3.57 MB PNG image]. The full-resolution version has a pixel scale of 62 meters per pixel and is centered near 35° N, 225° W. The two background frames come from the 15ESREGMAP01 mosaic.

The target of the mosaic was Rhadamanthys Linea, which runs left-to-right in the bottom half of the image, was only covered by the bottom corners of the four frames. This mosaic instead, highlights a region of lenticulated terrain. Lenticulae are region of small chaos or depressions on Europa surface, often appearing darker than the surrounding terrain. Many of these dark chaos regions disrupt or destroy the pre-existing ridged terrain, like the two-lobed dark area in the second frame from the left. Another disruptive feature is a fracture that runs through all four frames from left to right, that cuts into pre-existing ridges.

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I work for the Cassini Imaging team, usually processing Titan and Enceladus images and making maps of Titan based on our images. When I am not working or studying, I'm...I forget. I watch a lot of movies I guess.